Despite being quite ruined, quite overgrown, quite by the roadside and quite interfered with by a barbed wire fence, which runs through the centre of the circle this is still a great site.
It has many curious features. The first one most people see is that there is a little structure built next to the axial stone. Most people seem to refer to it as a little wedge tomb or something similar, but really do not think that it what it is/was. I get the feeling that it is an altar, possibly used during the Catholic persecution times, like the mass rocks found all over the country.
The circle has a fairly large quartz boulder in the centre, plus another 'normal' boulder, which could have a boulder burial beneath it. One of the fallen stones caught my eye because it has a bullaun carved into it, which added to the other things here points to a long and varied use of this stone circle.
If this was cleared of the gorse bushes and the fence was moved so that it went around the monument then, with the surrounding scenery, this would be a great site. It's only problem (as far as the visitor is concerned) is its remoteness - but that adds to the pleasantness of the site ... you can't always have it both ways.
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This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |